The first question:

Osho,
My problem is that I think there is something wrong with me. If I think that I have a problem then I really do have one. In fact, thinking seems to be just the making up of problems. What do you think?

I don’t think at all! That is why I have no problems, only answers and answers – no questions at all. It is exactly so. Mind is the root cause of all problems. Problems grow on mind like leaves on trees. You can go on pruning the leaves; that is not going to destroy the tree. On the contrary, it will help the foliage to become thicker – more and more leaves will come. Every gardener knows it: cut one leaf and the tree will accept the challenge. To protect itself, it will give birth to three leaves.

Mind can go on trying to solve problems, but it cannot solve them. Each solution will bring many more problems in its wake. That is why philosophy has utterly failed. Philosophy is the greatest failure in the world, and it has been such a great wastage of human intelligence that it is almost incalculable because the people with the greatest intelligence have remained involved with philosophical problems. From Aristotle to Wittgenstein, thousands of brilliant people have wasted their whole brilliance for the simple reason that they were trying to solve single problems rather than going to the very root of all.

The mind is the only problem. Hence philosophy comes up with many solutions, many conclusions, but no conclusion is conclusive. Immediately many more problems pop up. Not one single question has been solved by philosophical endeavor, but still philosophy goes on and on moving farther and farther into the desert. It cannot reach the ocean; it is going basically astray. That’s where religion differs.

Religion means not trying to solve particular problems but looking at the root of all the problems and cutting the root. That is what we call meditation: meditation is cutting the root. Meditation is not a solution of any problem in particular; it solves nothing. It simply helps you to get rid of the mind, the problem-creator. It simply helps you to slip out of the mind like a snake slips out of the old skin.

Once you know that you are not the mind, the great transcendence has happened. Suddenly all problems become insignificant; slowly slowly they evaporate. You are left with a profound peace; a great silence prevails. This silence is the solution. This peace is the answer, the answer of all answers.

This is the miracle of religion, or the miracle of meditation to be more particular: that without solving a single problem it solves all the problems, in a single blow. It is a sudden leap, a quantum leap.